Thursday, October 20, 2005

"Minnesota health officials announced last week that four children, members of an Amish community, had the polio virus. Two weeks earlier, a seven-month-old infant from the community was diagnosed with polio, the first such case in the U.S. in five years."

Canada was declared polio-free in 1994, however Canadian authorities were alerted because Ontario is home to several Amish communities. Travel back and forth from Amish communities in the U.S. is common.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit (in Canada) found some Amish members in Middlesex had travelled to central Minnesota, the area with the polio cases, and are now on heightened aleart.